Retaining and maintaining customer trust, confidence and respect will be key for Juniper Networks going forward now after two misfires in the CEO’s office. Shaygan Kheradpir resigned suddenly this week after the Juniper board questioned his leadership and conduct with a particular customer, whom they did not name.

Could Kheradpir have given Verizon the same treatment Verizon likely gave Juniper in negotiations when Kheradpir was CIO at the carrier? Could he have played hardball with AT&T’s Domain 2.0 effort to reduce spending?

Two or three CEOs in five or six years -- two in less than a year -- does not build trust or confidence in a company (see "Hewlett-Packard" (HP)), especially after one was ousted 10 months into his term following leadership and customer conduct issues. The Juniper board admitted an obvious error in hiring him in the first place.

Did they get it right this time? Instead of going outside the company again, Juniper elevated an entrenched technology executive in Rami Rahim, a 17-year Juniper veteran and employee #32 at the company. Rahim apparently possesses the Juniper savoir faire, according to Chairman and former CEO Scott Kriens.

That will be key in retaining and maintaining the respect and confidence of customers. Kriens said himself in an internal Juniper memo on Kheradpir’s removal that not everyone sees Juniper as a leader:

While many still believe in us, others are skeptical, and we have given them some reason to be. While some of our challenges are felt by the entire networking industry, some are made more difficult by doubts about Juniper and some of those doubts have been brought on by Juniper itself.

In this time of opportunity, Juniper must have trusted, clear, decisive, and courageous leadership at the very top of the company.

That includes at the board of director level. It’s time for the board to show that it can banish skepticism and doubt by picking a CEO customers can respect and trust. Someone who knows what Juniper stands for, its raison d’etre, and how it is best equipped to serve its customer’s needs.

It’s not someone from Microsoft, an enterprise software company. It wasn’t Kheradpir, who came from a Juniper customer and perhaps battled tooth-and-nail with Juniper customers in negotiations. We’ll see if it’s Rahim.

Jim Duffy has been covering technology for over 28 years, 23 at Network World. He covers enterprise networking infrastructure, including routers and switches. He also writes The Cisco Connection blog and can be reached on Twitter @Jim_Duffy and at jduffy@nww.com.